A Very Merry Christmas
by silly mellie
Summary: It's Christmas Eve, and due to Hermione's confused feelings and Ron's poor timing, their Christmases are not so jolly. But can Ron's little midnight confession change the direction things are headed in? My first ever fic. Just needs a lil bit of revision.


A/N: Hi everyone. Thank you for reviewing my first fic! *huggles all her readers* It was like every time I checked the story I had two more reviews. It was so cool! :)

I wrote this last summer and I had it published on another account, but then I got my new account (this one) so I am moving it here. I revised it a little bit too, so if you already read it, read it again so you can review it again, lol. 

Anyway...this story is pure Ron 3 Hermione fluff. Which is the best kind of story :). It was originally going to be much longer, I had pages and pages and pages of love triangles...it was pretty shuck darn good, too, but then it was taking me too long and I was desperate to publish something at the time so I crammed it all into one chapter. Maybe later on I'll rewrite the prelude.

Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me but what happens in the story. Ron, Hermione, Harry, Draco Malfoy, the Gryffindor common room, they all belong to J.K. Rowling. I sure wish I owned Ron Weasley though, hehe 3.

"A Very Merry Christmas"

-A Story by LaDy oF ThE RiNgS-

*-~-~-~-*

__

I swear...

By the moon and the stars in the sky...

And I swear...

Like the shadow that's by your side...

~*~

What a jolly Christmas I'm going to have, Hermione thought miserably.

She was sitting in the common room, staring out the window. She looked at the clock above the fireplace: 2:00am, it told. _I can't believe I've been here for three hours already._

She had been thinking about the events of the past couple of months. It had been a strange year at Hogwarts so far. And it was not what was going on outside with Voldemort and the Death Eaters-it was inside. Ever since the September the first (or maybe just since she had started caring about the way she looked), all the guys had started treating her differently. Even Draco Malfoy. Yes, that one came to her as quite a shock too. He had actually apologized to her, and been nice to her, and they were actually becoming friends. And then he asked her to the Yule Ball, which was held three days ago, on Friday. And she accepted. And then Ron asked her. But Draco had asked first. And when Hermione told him this, Ron stopped speaking to her. 

Those few days felt like such a long time. More like a few years. She didn't know how she was living without talking to him. Even if it was one of their stupid little fights, which it almost always was, she just wanted to talk to him. It was almost like he just walked out of her life, except for the fact that she was thinking about him every second of the day. She missed him so much. 

Hermione was in love with Ron. There was no other way to say it.

She stared out the window sadly. The moon was full and shining brightly against the navy blue velvet sky. Snow was falling slowly and silently, blanketing the Hogwarts grounds in white fluff. At any other time she would have appreciated the scene, but with all that had been happening to her lately, she wasn't really appreciating anything except privacy. And Ron. But she knew Ron wouldn't show up here now, of all the times. 

She tried to keep a straight face, but she couldn't. She allowed the silent tears to glide down her face. 

Surely Ron wasn't going to come down-it was Christmas Eve, he must have been sleeping. Or so she thought.

~*~

Ron stared gloomily at the inside roof of his canopy bed. How one could see so much staring at one thing, for so long, just thinking, was beyond him.

He had been thinking over the past few months for hours. He lost total track of time. He forced himself to break away from his thoughts and look at the little clock on his bedside table. 2:00am was the hour.

__

Well...it's Christmas. And I'm miserable. Joy to the world, he thought glumly.

He had liked Hermione for a long time. A very long time. And then he went and blew it. He let Malfoy get to her first. What a jerk. What a complete moron. He had a much better chance with her than Malfoy did. He knew Hermione much better than Malfoy did. He was nicer than Malfoy. He was funnier than Malfoy. He was a hell of a lot better looking than Malfoy. Or at least he thought so. But he didn't think that counted much with Hermione anyway. Hermione cared about looks, yes, but personality always came first. But she was absolutely drop-dead gorgeous anyway. And she was so smart, and so nice. _And she's also too good for me_. 

He sighed and continued staring for a while.

Something in his instinct told him to get out of bed and go down to the common room. At first he thought it might have just been because he was sleepy, but then he realized that at the moment he was anything but sleepy. And Harry was having a nightmare, as he often did since the previous summer. Ron, having nothing else to do, decided to go downstairs.

__

I see the questions in your eyes

I know what's weighing on your mind

You can be sure

I know

My part...

~*~

She was jerked out of her thoughts by soft footsteps coming down the stairs from the boy's dormitory. For a split second she thought it might be Ron. 

She watched the door as she heard the person behind it fiddling with the knob. Then the door opened. It _was _Ron.

Quickly, she turned around and curled up on the chair she was sitting in. Maybe he'd think she was sleeping, and go back upstairs. But he stayed right where he was. She could feel him standing there.

"Hermione?" he called softly. 

She didn't turn around. She ignored him, and continued looking out the window.

"I know you're not sleeping," he said quietly. 

"Go away, I don't really want to see you right now." But that was a complete and utter lie.

"Hermione, please talk to me," he said. "Could you at least turn around?"

She turned around to face him. Oooh, he was SO cute. Why did he have to be so cute? He walked a little bit closer. 

"I just wanted--hey, are you all right?" he asked, noticing the glossy look in her eyes.

Ugh. She let him see her crying. _Now you look like a completely hopeless emotional weakling. Great job, that's precisely what you were aiming for. Not_. She wiped her eyes. "I'm fine. What is it?" 

Ron looked something like...caring, or comforting, when he saw her crying, but he didn't say anything else pertaining to that. He walked to the armchair about two feet across from her, and sat down. She looked down at her knees.

"Listen, I...I just wanted to tell you something." His voice sounded slightly hurt when he added, "You could at least look at me."

She tilted up her head and looked him in the eyes. They were brown, with a hint of green. No one else she knew had eyes like that. 

For a few moments, they just stared into each other's eyes. 

Ron gave a little laugh, trying to break the ice. "You'd think that after hours of thinking this over, I'd know exactly what to say. But being that I don't know how to say it...I'm just going to say it."

It was silent again. Hermione wanted to tell him something too, but she couldn't get it out.

Ron took a deep breath. "It's now or never." And then he poured his whole heart out to her.

__

'Cause I'll

Stand beside you through the years

You'll only cry those happy tears

And though I'll make mistakes,

I'll never break your heart...

~*~

"I like you, Hermione. I really, really like you. And it's much, much more than just a friend liking. Because I've never felt like this around anyone else, ever. It's like whenever I'm around you, I get nervous and I start acting like a jerk and fighting with you, but it's always because I am always trying to cover up the way I feel about you, because I figured that if I acted any other way you would have figured out that I liked you much earlier and that you would wanna stay as far away from me as possible because you would never ever feel the same way about me and I didn't know if I could handle that."

He said this all in one breath. He looked at Hermione. _She looked shocked. Oh God, look at this, she's disgusted, any second now she's not gonna wanna hear another word out of me and she's going to storm off to her dormitory_. But he couldn't stop there. He had to go on. Now that he had started, it was easier just to finish.

"Everyday I find that I like you more and more and everyday you just get more and more beautiful to me. Hermione, I...I love you, Hermione."

There. He had said it. 

__

And I swear

By the moon and the stars in the sky

I'll be there...

And I swear

Like the shadow that's by your side

I'll be there

~*~

Did he say that? Did he really say that? Had she heard him right? She didn't think she did, yet she knew she did. This was all coming as a real shock to her. But it was a good shock. It was the kind of shock that makes your whole body feel all warm and tingly like you're melting and make you think that everything is going to be great from that point on. 

"What did you say?"

He looked at her uncertainly. "I said...I love you, Hermione."

She had heard him right. Hermione had heard him right. He loved her. He said it himself. He just said it, right there. 'I love you, Hermione'. The words repeated over and over again in her head. They were were like the words of one of those rare songs on the radio that no matter how many times you hear it you just never tire of it.

"If you don't feel the same way, I completely understand, I didn't mean to upset you or anything. I'm sorry. I'll go back to bed now." He stood up.

Before Hermione realized she was doing it, she jumped up from her chair, stepped in front of Ron, and kissed him.

She really amazed herself by doing that. She never thought she'd be the one to reach up and kiss the guy first. She thought she shocked Ron a bit too, since he didn't react at first. But after a second, he realized what was happening, wrapped his arms around her, and kissed back.

It was like he was giving her his entire heart and soul in that kiss. While they were lip-locked, it felt like there was no other world around them. It was just she and Ron. Nothing else mattered to her for that minute except for the two of them. She wanted this moment to last for eternity.

It was Hermione's first kiss ever. And she was glad that it was with Ron.

They broke away from each other after about a minute. She started crying all over again.

Ron smiled at her, a sweet, gentle smile. He still looked surprised. "Those are happy tears, aren't they?" he said. He gently ran his finger under each eye and wiped them away.

"I...yeah...I..." she started. For the first time in her life, she was at a loss for words. She loved him so much. She just couldn't think of anything to say. "I don't know what to say."

He ran his fingers through her hair, across her cheek. "Heh heh, that's a first for you, isn't it?" he said, reading her mind. "Think for a second."

And then she found that she didn't have to think. "I love you too, Ron."

"There you go," he said. "Merry Christmas, Hermione." Then he pulled her close and kissed her again, sealing the silent, never-fading promise between them.

For better or worse,

Til death do us part,

I'll love you with every beat of my heart

And I swear...

~*~The End~*~

Yes, very very sappy...but it was good, wasn't it? Aw come on. You know you liked it. Now go and review, like a good reader!


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